Jacob began his famous sermon, recorded in James 1, with the word blessed. We are blessed and should have a sense of awe and gratitude that God would choose to give us his Spirit and make us his children. This blessing gives us wisdom, but it also comes with a warning, “Anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Jas 1:6)....
4 Keys to Building Confidence in God When Life Falls Apart
I was eight years old in a small Indiana town when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was at that point, God began to teach me what it was to live a confident life. Confident in God, even when life falls apart. I’ve lived with RA my whole life and endured years of complications, multiple surgeries, and a great deal of time in bed as a kid. We ended up moving so that my parents could get some help for me, and we got closer to the medical experts in rheumatology....
Why Should Christians Evaluate What Their Lives Are Built On?
Matthew 7:24-27 states, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand....
Why Do Christians Emphasize Hell Instead of Not Being with God in Heaven?
Teaching on hell has been central to Christianity throughout history. Churches that shirk the unpleasant topics of hell and the wrath of God are really not Christian churches, they are something else. The church that downplays the wrath of God can become like the churches described in the book of Jude: “For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4)....
Why Christians Can Be Bad at Being Kind
As I write, the air is dense with the tang of blood, the roar of war, the cries of the dying, and the painful sobs of the bereaved. The Great War killed 9 million soldiers and another 7 million civilians, and yet, unbelievably, it began as a conflict over two dead ducks. To the Christian heart, the idea that ducks could start a war is preposterous. On the other hand, we are not too astonished by the idea that Jesus Christ would die to save sinners....
The Good and the Bad of Christian Fundamentalism
The last two weeks I have looked at the following two topics and I have given you the information in them that I found interesting. So, today we will take a look at the good and bad of Christian Fundamentalism, the second part of this series. Part II: Good and Bad of Christian Fundamentalism Fundamentalism has a very negative connotation in this day and age. The term was first used by anti-fundamentalists....
Why Pastors Struggle to Ask for Help (And How to Get Past It)
Asking for help is hard work. It’s easier to do it by yourself, but there’s no fun in it and in the end you don’t get much done. Many of us would rather not seek help from others because it’s easier to do it ourselves. Let’s say you have a broken truck, a broken tool, or a broken machine. You could sit there and try to fix it. You could try to come up with new solutions or ways to fix it, and you could probably do so....
One Key Reason Why Church Consultations Fail
It’s a new year. Let’s talk about one key reason why church consultations often fail. The New Year always brings reflection and resolutions. 2022 is here and there is a natural inclination towards planning for the year ahead. With the new year comes reflections about the church year in the past. Many churches feel it is helpful to have the past year reviewed by a neutral third party. The Pain of Misinformed Decisions There is a massive benefit to having a trained consultant with real experience examine a church’s position, strengths, and direction....
Guilt and the Great Deception in the Christian Life
One of the most harmful ways we can ever approach the Christian life is by looking at the Christian life through human eyes. Human eyes will give an ungodly, misguided and misunderstanding view on how the Christian life is. Our human flesh will twist things around our own way. Especially in the areas of sanctification and how the Christian life should work. We so often want to see the Christian life in a certain way that it causes us to have a guilt complex....
Why Are There So Many Ideas about Heaven That Are Not Biblical?
Many ideas about what happens when we die (the afterlife) are based on ideas rather than Scripture. These ideas are usually all wrong and based on what the people want to happen. No wonder that many people are confused about heaven. They have been fed false ideas about heaven. Biblical Views We are creatures of earth and many of our ideas come from earthly experience. Sadly we also desire to remain on earth and we want to escape the end of this world....